iFixit

My Problem

The activity of a 3 year old is amazing in how quickly they catch on to technology.....however they don't always fullyl understand the impact of some spilled milk.

The iPad 1 that I handed down to her had it's share of rough treatment....until one day, half the screen discontinued to react to gestures. The bottom half (closest to the home button) continued to work, but the top half did not. The assumption was that the digitizer screen must be replaced. So after some research and viewing of iFixit videos on YouTube and repair guides on the iFixit app....I figured I would venture into the self repair of an iPad.....I have done many repairs to many other types of items, but never a sealed Apple product.

I chose to order the tools from iFixit because MJ told me to....she's very influentual.

I ordered the digitizer screen from another source that did not arrive as quickly as the tools did from iFixit.

My Fix

The repair went much better than i anticipated. The hints and tricks shared on the iFixit video were spot on....some camera angles could use some minor adjustment, but all in all, the point was made and directions were comprehensive.

Once I had opened the iPad, I started to see some minor metal pieces out of place. I later discovered those were the frame clips. In the iPad 1 there are also cushion pads that after years of being installed, their adhesive wears down and they become detached...not an issue....I simply put them on wax paper and sprayed them with a light adhesive and reloacted them to the spots on the base where it was apparant a pad once rested.

When I was about to use the tools designed to release the ribbon cables, I noticed one of the ribbon cables was not fully seated......low and behold, once that was reseated and the cable clip lifted and reset, all was good with the iPad.

My Advice

The re-assembly turned out okay. I read many postings that DIY fixers found that their screen had a "spongy" feel to it. I found that was a result of the disassemble process. The spudger process can break some of the thin metal frame clips. To do this again, I am better prepared. I now have a set of clips as spares in the event i break any of the installed ones during the disassemble process.

I am posting this from my iPad3 and as Apple would have it, the ability to simply browse and attach photos isn't exactly possible....or at least PaPa didn't find a way.

I hope this helps any other user that has an iPad with a half non-responsive screen.

Written Jul 10 2012